Cellphones While Driving - Why Not Just Get Drunk?

My buddy Karl over at Whitenoise posted an article about proposed legislation banning cell phones

while driving. Scott commented on the article, saying he thought it would OK, what with hands-free sets and all. My rebuttal:

"I disagree.

It's not the act of holding a cell phone that's the distraction. We've all drunk coffee, fiddled with the radio, smoke a cigarette while driving. Being able to perform more than one physical task at a time is the essence of driving.

However, talking to a passenger and talking to a person on the other end of a phone are fundementally different. I wish I could refer the CBC radio article that I heard over a year ago now, just to make sure I'm getting this right, but here goes from memory:

When you're talking to a passenger in car they're in the same environment or context as you. So as some @#$% cuts you off, you shoulder check to change lanes, or the little kid steps out on the curb, they see the same thing you do. Any breaks or pauses in our speech are in context, and the rythym of the speech pattern on both sides of the conversation (driver & passenger) are obvious and require no explaination.

Now, the human brain does a funny thing when we're on a phone: we try to stay coherent. We're not in the same context as our conversational counterpart, and breaks in our conversation due to driving conditions would make it seem as if we're being rude or drunk. Unconsciously we try to stay in context, in this case, the context of the phone call. Some of us may have had the experience of being on the cell phone & having to explain: "Sorry, some SOB just cut me off."?

So it's not a matter of coordination. It's a matter of attention. Furthermore, we're fighting an inate desire to appear coherent, which is difficult if the two ends of the conversation are in different contexts.

Some studies that I've heard (again in passing) have suggested that driving while talking on a cell phone (even hands free) is equivalent to driving with a blood alchohol level over point oh eight."

You know when the insurance companies are paying attention (i.e., there's money involved) something's up